GERD technical committee resumes meetings in Addis Ababa

Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry and Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Aaty are taking part in the ministerial meeting on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which will be held on Tuesday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abou Zaid said in a statement on Monday that the meeting is set to be attended by the ministers of foreign affairs and water, and the intelligence chiefs of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia.

Abou Zaid added that the meeting comes to follow the outcomes of the previous meeting, which was held in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on 4 April. It also comes in line with the previous agreement between the presidents of Egypt and Sudan and the former Ethiopian prime minister during their meeting on the sidelines of the 30th African Union (AU) Summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in January.

The meeting also comes after the failure of the last meeting of the technical committee on the GERD, which was held on 5 May in Addis Ababa.

Abou Zaid expressed hope that the meeting could implement the orders of the three countries’ leaders and find solutions to the obstacles that the technical committee faces, as well as continue the technical studies in order to achieve the mutual interest of the three countries.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, formerly known as the Millennium Dam, is under construction in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia on the Blue Nile River. Construction of the dam started in April 2011. However, Egypt has expressed concerns that the construction of the dam could negatively affect its historic Nile water share of 55bn square metres, which it has had access to since a 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan.